


STN Prompts

by Chiri_chan



Category: Stick Together Now
Genre: Broken Bones, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29393829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiri_chan/pseuds/Chiri_chan
Summary: Misc prompts that I'm challenging me to do.





	STN Prompts

**Author's Note:**

> Remember how Harrow broke Whites legs that one time? I do.

Echo rushed through the halls, cradling White in his arms and trying his best to not jostle him too much as every step caused the child sob even more as their broken swayed. It was horrifying, finding White in front of Dolls office as he had with the sign so crudely taped to him. He should have trained them better, taught them better to prevent this. He knew it was too soon for Doll to send them to spy on the other Council members, _especially_ Harrow, but he wasn’t allowed to have a say in when or where they were assigned and so he had kept his opinions to himself. And now White had paid the price for it.

It was inevitable that one of the triplets would eventually be hurt on one of their assignments from Doll, but Echo had hoped against hope that it would be a long time before he had to face that reality. Having them around still felt so new and bright and it had sparked feelings in his heart that hadn’t seen the light of day since he was a young boy and even some new ones he barely had the words to describe. He wanted to protect them with his beaten and bloodied hands as much as he could, teach them how to survive in the tangled web of politics, mind games and pain that was the heart Neo-Spartan government with its three ruling heads all vying for the chance to get under your skin and tear you apart in different and horrible ways. But he’d failed. They’d only been put to the task of spying on the Council members for a little over five months and they had already been caught and used as a toy for Harrow to mangle and throw back in Dolls face in some twisted gesture of one upmanship that made Echo's blood boil even as his mind shank away from the idea of being mad at someone in a seat of power. 

He wasn’t supposed to have any feeling towards them, whether good or ill, because he was only ever supposed to be a tool and nothing more. And he had been Dolls perfect tool, up until she introduced him to the Triplets all those months ago. He’d only had them for a year and a half but they were changing him in ways he would never have thought he was capable of before. Ways that he struggled to repress in moments like these where his heart screamed at the unfairness of it all.

_They’re just kids! They shouldn’t have to endure the life you lead, they're the ones who are supposed to be protected by your sacrifices not be subjected to the same pain you’ve born since you were a boy!!_

He buried the raging voice as best he could as Black ran up to him from an adjoining hall, clinging to his leg and looking up at him with wide eyes, fat tears rolling down his cheeks and his body tremble with the reverberations of pain from his brother's injury. This was maybe the worst part, knowing that all three had to suffer because Echo wasn’t able to keep them safe. If he had words to speak he would have begged them for forgiveness. But he didn’t, his voice long since taken from him to keep everyone safe. 

_Not that it helped those most important._

He gave Black a nod of acknowledgement but otherwise barely paid him any heed as he sped down the hall and towards the stairs that would lead him to the lower levels, he had to get White to the medic as quick as possible. They only had a short window in order to get his legs fixed before he would be forced to endure the long weeks of healing that an injury such as this would take to get better and Echo wanted to spare him as much pain as he could. Taking the stairs down he could only hold White tighter in apology as he sobbed and Black choked back his own sobs, quickly making his way quickly towards the passageway that led to Dolls personal medic. Her name was Triage and Echo's relationship with her was a complicated one. They had known each other for as long as Echo had worked for the betterment of Neo-Sparta and had been to nearly every training session since they had begun. She’d brought him back from the verge of death and soothed his pains too many times to count and he respected her, even as their relationship went through its rough patches.

He didn’t know if there was a clean definition of what they were to each other, they had tried once to deepen their relationship to something more physical, but that had been disastrous in more ways than one and the distance it created between them was a gap Echo still wasn’t sure how to bridge. They were friendly enough to each other despite the strain the few times they met up outside of the white room Echo trained in, but beyond that they shared a sort of camaraderie that comes with having a life that the public must never know about. But Echo wouldn’t go so far as to call her a friend.

Despite that though, Echo rapped loudly on her door in the hopes that he could call on those frayed friendly feelings to ask her for this one favor. He shifted uneasily as he heard Triage approach the door, opening it with a harried look only to frown deeply at the sight of White in Echo's arms and looking to Echo in annoyance.

“I can’t do anything without permission from Doll, you know that.” She said, an attempt at gentleness in her tone but annoyance coloring it anyway.

He shook his head, Doll was out on business at her estate today and she would be home for hours yet and they both knew time was ticking down for White to get his legs healed before her flair would be useless. Her flair could only repair damage that had happened in the last twenty minutes, beyond that she would only be able to revert back to an earlier stage of the injury. Which was worse than useless if she didn’t help right away, before the time Harrow had broken the limbs was too far in the past to reverse.

She glared at him, not appreciating his refusal. “Echo I’m sorry, really, but I can’t heal anyone without her explicit permission. _You_ of all people should know that.’’

He did know it, he knew the rules that Doll imposed on her staff as well as he knew the back of his hand, but in that moment he didn’t _care_. Without any acknowledgement of her words he shouldered past her, ignoring her shout of indignation, and into the small medical ward she was holed up in. She didn’t do much here on a day to day basis Echo knew, most of these instruments going unused for weeks or even months on end, but Doll liked to keep her close at hand and well equipped to handle any emergencies should they arise. The one bed in the room was clean and the sheets soft per Dolls specifications as Echo gently laid White down, lightly brushing a hand over his and Blacks heads as Black crawled up to lay beside him, before turning to face the now well and truly miffed medic.

“I can’t help him Echo.” She seemed to be trying to swallow her anger and be sympathetic, but he could see her anger and fear as clear as day. “Any work i do has to have explicit permission from Doll… I’m sorry. He can stay, I suppose, but that’s it.”

That wasn’t good enough. He knew Triage wouldn’t disobey Doll without incentive though, so without any hesitation his hand snapped out and took hold of her arm in an iron grip and, ignoring her cry of shock and fear, he pulled up memories he had stored away in his mind just in case a day such as this came to pass. 

It was Triage, shown through the lens of Echo's memory as snapshots and short bursts of sight and color as he plays back every time he had caught her pining after Negative, the newest member of the Council and the man Doll hated with a bitterness only matched by how she spoke of her deceased parents. None of it was too incriminating taken alone, but Echo had dozens of these scenes, her covert glances and pining looks, her passing conversations with him and her fascinations with his matches and even her going to few. But the most damning of them all, the one Doll would never forgive, was of a scene Echo had only caught by chance. It was the recent past so Echo let the memory play out vividly in her mind, her shy smile and rosy cheeks as she gently took his hand in hers, the way he gave a friendly smile back as they laughed about something Echo couldn't hear and the familiar sight of a cut closing all on its own as Triage used her flair to heal him.

Echo heard her gasp as he pulled his awareness out of his own head, refocusing on the room and blinking away the memories. Triage was staring at him in horror, her face ashen and a tremble in her hands. She looked at a loss for words, staring at him with wide eyes before Echo pulled her arm, gently but firmly toward the bed and nodded to the child upon it and gave her a grim, determined look. She pressed her lips together, anger and betrayal writ plain across her features as she snapped her attention away from him and to White, laying her hand on his leg with more force than necessary, but careful that it wasn’t enough to jostle the leg and closed her eyes in concentration. 

Echo reached down and held Whites hand, holding his breath that this would work, that he had gotten him here in time and that it could all be fixed without any further suffering. The second it took for the bones to start realigning was a long and agonizing one, the beginning of the healing process preceded by Whites groan of discomfort as the bones and nerves start to repair themselves. It was a nauseating process, sending pins and needles all through the affected area and the stomach churning, but it at least was a quick one and within a few minutes the bones that had previously been snapped had straightened and become whole once more, and Echo could finally breathe once more.

Triage opened her eyes, her expression gone flat as she pulled her hand back and stepped away. Sparing one last glance at Echo's face, one that told him without words that any hope of friendship between them were through, turned on her heel and left. There would be consequences he knew. Doll would have to be told what happened and Triage would no doubt make sure that Doll knew that Echo forced her into doing it, but Echo couldn’t find it in himself to care. Pulling down his mask he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to Whites forehead and got a sleepy mumble in reply, the boy falling into an exhausted sleep after the healing drained his energy to all but nothing. Black was trying his best not to follow his brother though, fear still clouding his eyes and pushing back the exhaustion no doubt weighing on his mind after the trauma he felt through his brother. Gently, softly Echo pressed another kiss to Blacks head and gave him a less than perfect smile, doing his best to ignore that he was just as shaken up by the ordeal as any of them, knowing it was his job to be the brave one. Projecting as much comfort as he could and burying everything else to deal with later he took Blacks hand and moved to sit by his feet, humming a the song he usually kept for their lullabies as he rubbed soothing circles on the back of the boys hand until, finally, Black dozed off cuddled against his brothers side.

And despite the bridges he'd burned, despite the punishment no doubt coming to him once Doll came back with Yellow in tow, he knew he would never regret what he had done today.


End file.
